> In the seaside Irish village of Glennkill, a man lies murdered, pinned to the ground by his own garden spade. His neighbors, a suspicious lot with plenty of secrets to hide, respond to the homicide in their midst with idle talk and bitter recriminations, and the local police show little interest in the case. It falls to the victim’s truest friends to solve the mystery of his murder – provided they can stop grazing long enough to do so!

You see, in Leonie Swann’s Three Bags Full the murder victim is a shepherd – and the amateur sleuths are sheep. Led by Miss Maple, the cleverest sheep in the village (and possibly the world), this band of rag-tag, woolly detectives dedicate themselves to solving the crime that took the life of their beloved shepherd. But to track down the necessary clues, the sheep must first overcome their own secrets, fears, and potentially dangerous weaknesses. What became of lead ram Sir Ritchfield’s brother Melmoth when he left the flock? What occurred in Othello’s mysterious past to make him so brave? And will Mopple the Whale be able to conquer his voracious appetite long enough to do some investigating?

You’re sure to be charmed by these wonderful ovine characters with their unique personalities and perspectives – often wrong but always entertaining – into human behavior. (If the long-nosed man lives in the building called the House of God, then surely his name is God?) From the finding of a Thing in their meadow (“Human beings are attached to Things”) to their philosophical musings on the nature of Cloud Sheep (just clouds to us), the detectives of Three Bags Full will stay in your heart long after the last page is turned.